Dhumkkudiya, directed by Nandlal Nayak, will be shown at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.  It is based on true events in the life of a 14-year-old girl from Jharkhand. The film will be screened on July 12 at the film festival.

Nayak, who is himself a folk artist as well as a music director, says he still remembers the fear in the eyes of a girl whose film is based on real events from her life. is. The film has already received critical acclaim and will now be screened at the world-famous Cannes Film Festival, as reported by The Post Reader. 

In an interview with PTI-Bhasha, Nayak said that he almost went into depression after hearing the story of the girl, how the girl escaped after being a victim of sexual abuse in a posh area of ​​Delhi. The shooting of Dhumkkudiya took place in 52 days in the interiors of Jharkhand. Now, the film has been honoured with more than 60 awards in 84 countries so far.

He said, ‘I went to a village in Jharkhand to learn about tribal music. During that time I met a 14-year-old girl. The people of the village were coming to me eagerly to listen to my story, but this girl was very calm and not interested in anything.”

After a long time, she opened up about the entire series of events in Delhi about human trafficking and sexual abuse. “Finally she opened up and narrated her horrific tale of how she was trafficked and sexually abused before she could understand what was happening. Hearing her tale my entire world crashed like a pack of cards,” the director said.

He explained how when she conceived and was locked in one place where she delivered the child in the bathroom there and locked the child in a suitcase. And she somehow got out of there and caught the train for Ranchi. After that, she changed many buses and after travelling for many kilometres reached her village.

Nayak continued: “I decided to adopt her … I went to the US for a few months and on my return came to know that she had been sold many times and raped more than 100 times before being killed. I went into a depression and left my music research and decided to make a movie instead. I had (before this) worked with the best of movie directors, composers and celebrities, but no one came to support my project.”

Nayak said he spent his entire saving of Rs 3.5 crore saving in making the movie but could not succeed. “I had worked with top directors. I had directed Sonali Bose’s film. I had worked with Resul Pookutty who got an Oscar. I had worked with contemporary music director Michael GalassoI but I learnt that when you talk about your existence no one stands with you. I completely failed.”

“Finally Sumit Agrawal came to my rescue and we made the movie. 30,000 girls were trafficked from Jharkhand in ten years in the name of domestic help. But this is not Jharkhand only. You see Bihar, Bengal, Odisha, North East, the tales are the same. Even in Italy I saw how girls from third world countries are forced into prostitution and here there are middlemen like Budhua who talk of Jal, Jangal, and Jameen but his existence depends on consumer market of girls.” he says.

The character of the protagonist in the film is played by Rinkal Kacchap and that of the antagonist by Pradhuman Nayak and is produced by Sumit Agarwal and Nandlal Nayak.

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